Penitence and Testament of Adam — Variant Traditions

Variant Traditions of the Penitence and Testament of Adam

[A gathering of fragments and variant forms; these survive in differing and sometimes conflicting witnesses.]

Some witnesses tell that after their penance Adam and Eve were given a portion of the seeds and fragrant herbs of the Garden, that the earth might not be wholly without its memory.

Others tell that when Adam was about to die, he gathered his sons and daughters, the number of them many, and sent Seth and Eve to the gate of Paradise to beg the oil of mercy from the tree of life, that his pain might be eased. But the archangel Michael met them and said, “The oil of mercy is not for this age. It is kept for the end of days, when the chosen one will come and raise the dead.” [Text missing]

Others tell that Eve, before her own death, called her children and bade them write the deeds of their parents upon tablets of stone and of clay, so that if the LORD should judge the world by water, the tablets of stone would remain, and if by fire, the tablets of clay would be hardened and endure.

And it is told that when Adam died, the sun and the moon were darkened seven days, and angels bore his soul and laid his body to rest, and Abel beside him; and dust was set upon them, with the promise: “You are dust, and to dust you return; and from the dust I will raise you in the last day.”

[The forms of this tradition differ; what is constant is the penitence, the withheld oil of mercy, and the promise of resurrection from the dust.]